BIOPROSP 2027

Dr Katherine (Kate) Duncan is a marine microbiologist and natural products researcher whose work sits at the interface of microbial ecology, metabolomics, and antibiotic discovery. She is an Associate Professor in Microbial Metabolomics and Antibiotic Discovery at Newcastle University, where she leads an interdisciplinary research programme focused on deciphering the chemical language of marine microorganisms. Her research integrates genomics, metabolomics, and environmental microbiology to understand how biological interactions and environmental conditions shape microbial secondary metabolism and to enable informed biodiscovery of new bioactive compounds.

Kate obtained an MChem in Chemistry from the University of Aberdeen, including an international placement in marine natural products in Florida, and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada. She subsequently undertook postdoctoral fellowships in Marine Biomedicine at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, and in Marine Biotechnology at the Scottish Association for Marine Science. She established her independent research group at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow in 2016, with tenure in 2020 and in 2024 moved to Newcastle University. Kate is an advocate for community approaches to data sharing (ActinoBase, NPAtlas, MI-BiG, GNPS etc) and equality in STEMM.